Crazy postmodern guy.
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1996) -- "Modern" adaptations of Shakespeare are nothing new of course (neither is any other sort of adaptation, there are so many these days, in and out of movies), but this was a pretty good one. Baz Luhrmann gets annoying with his spazziness sometimes, but when he settles down it's all right. Many scenes in this movie were quite good. B
Moulin Rouge (2001) -- Again, Baz Luhrmann (though I admire his editing energy) sometimes makes you want to shut off the superfast noise (and I'm, supposedly, part of the "MTV Generation"), but what makes this movie worth watching is the exceptionally well-done use of pop songs as musical numbers. Besides the music (and the candy-like production design, of course), there's not too much going on, however, which almost makes me say it's only a good movie if you skip to the music. C
Copyright (c) Nov 2001 by Rusty Likes Movies